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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28763847">Is She Mine?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/abigailangel187/pseuds/abigailangel187'>abigailangel187</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Stardew Valley (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/F, F/M, Slow Burn, idk im bad at that, we’ll see what happens</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 05:15:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>15,383</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28763847</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/abigailangel187/pseuds/abigailangel187</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>One summer, you and him become one in his dark basement. He never saw you again after that season.<br/>Eight years later, you come to inherit your grandfather’s farm, a seven-year-old child holding your hand. His world turns upside down.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Abigail &amp; Sam &amp; Sebastian (Stardew Valley), Abigail/Emily (Stardew Valley), Penny/Sam (Stardew Valley), Sebastian/Female Player (Stardew Valley), Sebastian/Player (Stardew Valley), Sebastian/Reader</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>169</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hi! this is my first stardew fic. of course i had to write about sebby. this is a female reader, just because it deals with pregnancy and children. however, i’m super open to writing other fics for male or nonbinary readers! let me know if that’s something you want. feedback is appreciated! enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Summer in the valley was incredible. Sunday mornings on the beach, Friday evenings at the saloon. Playing pool until your wrists hurt and laughing until your ribs popped.</p><p>	The sunny afternoons were like you, he thought. Bright and cheerful, so unlike him. He hid in the shadows of the trees, sweating in a black hoodie that bagged around his frame. You sat down next to him and suddenly light flooded his vision. It was a change of pace every summer, and he loved it. Although summer was his least favorite season by far, he got to spend it with his favorite person. Of course, he would never admit that.</p><p>	The dark evenings were like him, you thought. Mysterious and soft, calm and kind. Slightly breezy, chilly, goosebump-inducing. You kicked up sand on the beach, your skin sunkissed and slightly burnt, playing in the waves until the sun set and you shivered in your shorts and t-shirt. And then there was him. You sat next to him, and the dark shadows cleansed your overwhelming heat. And it felt incredible. Of course, you would never admit that.</p><p>	Summers melted into one another over the years, and Sebastian grew into a young man, and you into a young lady. The summers spent playing were now spent hanging out, Abigail and Sam messing around on their gaming systems while you and Sebastian played cards. It was too hot out, he mused, way too hot to go outside. Still, by the sunset, you had forced him out, walking along the edge of the beach.</p><p>	That summer you were fifteen, and he was seventeen. And you were closer than ever. Secretly, skin met skin, and two people met as one. In the dark basement where he lived, punk rock playing, two bodies molding together and moving so irresponsibly, moving closer and closer. Nobody was in his big wooden house except for the two of you, and you almost felt as though you were disrespecting Robin’s handiwork by this being your first visit. How was this the first time you had been in Sebastian’s room? It was like him, cool and soft, and his bedding was warm when the two of you fell together at the end of the night, quiet breathing in sync. When Sam called him, he let it go to voicemail.</p><p>	The dance of the moonlight jellies was mesmerizing to you. Of course, to him, it wasn’t as mesmerizing as the light bouncing off of your face. Soft blue suited you, he thought. It was different from your sunny disposition as a child. You weren’t children, anymore, after all. The day before had made sure of that. He put his hand on top of your’s, and you looked at him, a little smile on your face. Sam whooped, and Abigail shoved his shoulder. Finally, it had happened. After summers of pining, it had happened. </p><p>	The next day, when you bade your farewells at the bus stop, you kissed him, telling him you would see him next summer. He held your hands tight and tried not to cry.</p><p>	However, the next summer, you didn’t return. A summer without sun. A summer of hanging out with Emily and Penny instead of you, grumbling while his best friends make out with their girlfriends on the beach at night. Smoking on the side while the rest of them skinny dip, then buying cigarettes at the Joja Mart while nobody’s watching. And he wondered where you were, but he didn’t have your home phone. Just your grandfather’s phone.</p><p>	Then again, the old man was getting sicker. Maybe that was why you weren’t around. Maybe your grandfather couldn’t take care of you during the summer, since he had his own issues. Suddenly, he felt horrible for grumbling.</p><p>	Years passed, no contact. Your grandfather died two years later, and the town mourned, and Sebastian didn’t really know how to react. He never saw you at the funeral. </p><p>	More years passed. Your grandfather’s farm turned into a forest of weeds, like Sebastian’s memory of you.</p><p>	Soon, a young new farmer came into Pelican Town, a child holding her left hand, luggage in her right. </p><p>	His world turned upside down.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I know this chapter was insanely short, but I promise the others will be longer. Thank you for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Smart Kid</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>How did you end up going back to Pelican Town after all these years?</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Although playing pool at the saloon used to make your wrists hurt, now they were in pain all the time, thanks to all the typing you did at Joja. Of course, all of this was just to provide for your daughter. </p><p>	You were twenty-three, but had had a steady job at Joja ever since you had graduated high school with a two-year-old on your hip. Everything you did was for her. </p><p>	When you told your father you were pregnant, angry didn’t even begin to describe how he felt. Once you could provide for yourself, he kicked you and Olive out, cutting off contact. You lost contact with your grandfather, with Stardew Valley, with Pelican Town, and with Sebastian.</p><p>	You had meant to tell him about Olive, you really had. But it was embarrassing. As Olive grew, from a baby, to a toddler, to a little girl, the resemblance to him was uncanny. You were positive the only thing she got from you was something insignificant, like earlobes or toe-shape. </p><p>	The routine was the same, every day. Wake up at five, wake Olive at six. Get her ready, drop her off at school or daycare. Go to work. Work from eight to five, then pick up Olive from daycare and make dinner, play a board game or read with your daughter, then put her in bed and spend the rest of the night working overtime. Go to bed, repeat. It was draining, and it wasn’t a life that you had pictured yourself living.</p><p>	When you received a letter in the mail, addressed originally to your father, then forwarded to you, your heart almost stopped. Olive had poked you until you read it aloud to her, then she screamed in delight.</p><p>	“We should do it, Mommy! If we do it, we can spend all day together. And then you can teach me all my school stuff, and I won’t have to deal with all the other stupid kids.”</p><p>	“Ollie!” You giggled. She really was like her father. You kissed her forehead. “Well, let me think about it. Moving expenses, the cost of the job, cleaning up the farm-”</p><p>	“Mommy.” Olive had her arms crossed, her narrow eyes bent in fake anger.</p><p>	“What, baby?”</p><p>	“Just do it.”</p><p>	For years you had avoided the word irresponsible. That was what your father had called you when he found out. It was what you had been when you were fifteen. What was responsible? Quitting your job at Joja, packing up everything in your little apartment, moving back to Stardew Valley. That was irresponsible. What would you do when you didn’t have a steady income any longer? </p><p>	What would you do when your daughter was unhappier than she already was?</p><p>	Of course, she had asked about her father. You had told her all about him. The way he was like a chilly autumn day, cold and soft to the touch. And she touched you, and said you were warm, and you told her that you knew.</p><p>	And you saw her tossing in the bed next to you, and whimpering, and coming home from school all dirty. Maybe a change of pace was what she needed. Maybe homeschooling her and raising her in the valley would be exactly what she needed to thrive.</p><p>	And so, the two of you were on a rickety bus on the way to Pelican Town. Olive was asleep, head in your lap, while you read a novel that you brought with you for the trip. Zuzu City was far behind you now, and the bumpy dirt roads confirmed that Pelican Town was near. You couldn’t read with this kind of driving. You set the book down and tried not to throw up. How was Olive asleep like this?</p><p>	You ran your hand through her dark hair, smiling and humming. She was snoring lightly, thanks to her awful spring allergies, and you kissed her temple. Her eyes fluttered open. “Mommy?”</p><p>	“Hey, Ollie. We’re almost there. Get up.”</p><p>	Your daughter sat up and rubbed her eyes, yawning. “Alright, alright. I’ll get up.” She sat on her knees, sniffling and wiping her nose on her sleeve.<br/>
The bus lurched, then stopped. After getting your luggage, you took Olive’s hand and stepped off the bus.</p><p>	Waiting for you was a familiar woman, one you had spent countless summers dining with. She was older now, and the passage of time almost made your stomach lurch. </p><p>	“(Y/N)!” She ran to you and gave you a hug, tighter than ever.</p><p>	“Hi, Robin,” you said, giggling a little bit. She released you, then looked down to the little girl hiding by your leg.</p><p>	“Who’s this?”</p><p>	“Oh, this is Olive.” You paused for a moment. “...My daughter.”</p><p>	Of course, the resemblance to Robin’s son was uncanny. She looked at the girl for a little bit, then stood back up, deciding not to ask any questions. However, the knowing glint in her eyes made you a little bit nervous.</p><p>	Once introduced to the mayor and brought to your new home, you were left alone with your daughter, unpacking silently and trying to unwind from how stressful certain introductions had been. You hadn’t really thought about how people in Pelican Town would react to Olive. After all, it was a small town, and word travelled fast. Of course, with the way Sebastian had talked about Zuzu City when you were children, you had assumed that he would live there now. If he had wanted to contact you, he would’ve. You hadn’t really thought about how Robin would feel, though. Of course she would see the resemblance. She was Sebastian’s mother, of course, and she knew her son better than anyone(other than you, possibly, but the vulnerability you had seen him in had been years ago).</p><p>	Now, you paused to think about Sam and Abigail. Would they still be here? Abigail might be an adventurer now, learning magic and exploring the old caves like she had always wanted to. Sam was a mystery to you, of course. He had started working at JojaMart to help provide for his family during your last summer here, and you didn’t know if he was still in the valley, or if he was still in contact with Sebastian. If he was, would he tell him?</p><p>	“Why did Robin look at me like that, Mommy?” Olive. Her little voice was shy and quiet, and she sat on the creaky mattress, taking out some of her spring outfits from her luggage.</p><p>	“Like what, baby?” you replied, looking up to her.</p><p>	“She looked at me...I dunno, she looked at me weird.” Olive was a smart girl. It wouldn’t be long before she figured anything out. </p><p>	“I don’t know, Ollie.” You stood and ruffled her hair.</p><p>	Olive gasped. “She knows my father, doesn’t she?” she asked quickly, making you blush. She pointed at you. “Ears red! That’s your tell! My father lives here, doesn’t he?”</p><p>	You sighed and fell on the bed next to her, and she lightly hit your back. “I’m sorry, Ollie. I just don’t want you to be hurt if he doesn’t live here anymore. Or if…”</p><p>	“If he doesn’t want me,” Olive finished. You looked over to her.</p><p>	“Oh, baby, I don’t know anyone in the world who wouldn’t want a kid as awesome as you.” You sat her on your lap and kissed her temple again. “He would want you.”</p><p>	“Well...if he lives here, I want to meet him. You know I want to.” Olive looked at you. She had that serious look on her face, the serious look that she shared with Sebastian. That knowing glint in her eye, her small mouth curved down.</p><p>	“I know, Olive.” You moved her hair back from her face. “Let’s get this place cleaned up a bit, yeah? Then we can go to bed, and we can start the next morning by giving you a tour of Pelican Town.”</p><p>	Olive giggled a little bit. “Pelican Town is a silly name.”</p><p>	“It sure is.” That was the same reaction you had had to the name when you were a little girl. Maybe she had taken more from you than you thought. </p><p>	The next morning was hectic. You woke to a leak in the ceiling and a little girl jumping on your bed in excitement. She was ready already, of course, her dark hair pulled back, wearing her favorite dress with a pair of Mary-Jane style shoes and ruffle socks. You picked her up. “Don’t jump on the bed with shoes on, missy!” She just laughed and wiggled herself out of your grasp, rushing to the door. </p><p>	“Come on, Mommy!” Olive exclaimed.</p><p>	You yawned and grabbed your own outfit for the day. “Alright, alright.”</p><p>	Pelican Town was just how you remembered it. A quiet, knowing town. Middle-aged women whispering to one another on their way to their aerobics class, people sluggishly marching toward the JojaMart, blue jackets worn with shame. You thought you spotted Sam’s hair headed towards the dreaded superstore, but snapped yourself out of it as you brought your daughter to Pierre’s, the best place to buy goods in town.</p><p>	Again, the store was the same. However, there was a fresh coat of paint on the walls and the shelves were a little bit more worn down than they had been eight years ago. Pierre was the same, just a few more lines in the corners of his eyes. He had always been a man who loved to laugh.</p><p> “(Y/N), did you take over your grandfather’s farm?” he asked, emerging from behind the counter.</p><p>	“Sure did,” you said. “I’m here to pick up some seeds and maybe a few goods for some dinner.” Olive was, once again, hidden behind your leg, clutching onto your skirt like she was hiding from some kind of monster. She was too shy for her own good.</p><p>	“Who’s this? A new little sister?”</p><p>	You gulped. “Nope. My daughter, Olive. What, you don’t see the resemblance?” you joked, but there wasn’t a smile on his face.</p><p>	“Huh,” he mused. “Well, we’re having a sale on our dairy products. Let me know if you need anything!”</p><p>	“He knows my dad too,” Olive whispered to you.</p><p>	“Yes, of course, the town has, like, twenty people.”</p><p>	“Well I didn’t know that!” Olive giggled and dragged you to the cereal aisle, pointing out the sugary snacks that she absolutely needed.</p><p>	A door opened. Abigail emerged with a backpack, closing the door behind her. “I’m going to Em’s, Dad! I’ll be back, like...I don’t know when!” She laughed and started her way to the exit.</p><p>	“Now, Abigail. We need some ground rules here-”</p><p>	“I’m twenty-two. And please, it’s not like I can get pregnant.” </p><p>	Your stomach lurched. You put your hands over Olive’s ears.</p><p>	“Oh, there’s a kid. Sorry, kid!” Abigail looked at Olive first, then at you. Her eyes widened. “Hey, what’s up?” she asked feebly.</p><p>	“Hey, Abby.” You laughed a little bit. “I’m, uh...taking over the old farm.”</p><p>	“Right. I heard that someone was.” Abigail looked at you, then at Olive, then at you. “Hey, is that-”</p><p>	“My daughter? Yeah. Yeah, she’s my daughter.”</p><p>	The clockwork was working in Abigail’s brain. She had always been a little bit quicker with math than Sam was, so seeing her first was completely unlucky. “Oh, um. Hi.” Of course, Abigail wasn’t loudmouthed like Sam. She was a little bit more polite. She bent down to Olive and held out her fist. “What’s up. I’m Abigail, and I’m your p...I’m your mommy’s friend.”</p><p>	Olive fist-bumped her, a little smile on her face. “I’m Olive. I’m Mommy’s daughter.”</p><p>	“Right.” Abigail stood up. She hadn’t grown an inch since she was fourteen. “Well, I’ll see you around.” She waved as she left the store, the bell tinkering behind her.</p><p>	You sighed and looked at your daughter, and she looked at you. If every introduction was going to be as stressful as the last ones, you didn’t know what you were going to do.</p><p>	“I liked her, Mommy.”</p><p>	“Yeah, she’s great.”</p><p>	You sighed again. Olive was a smart kid. She was catching on to everything.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Not Just Any Girl</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>He learns that you’re in town.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sebastian didn’t really know what he looked like anymore. Sure, he had dark hair. Thin dark eyes, pale skin. Practically vampiric in nature. But the rest of his features were blurs to him, oddly enough. He looked, but he didn’t see. He hadn’t really seen himself since you had left. Darkness plunged over his vision.</p>
<p>	Metaphorically speaking, of course. He could still easily see Abigail run into his room in a panic, hurry up and shake his shoulders.</p>
<p>	“I’m busy, Abby,” Sebastian said, turning back to his computer. “Take my job seriously for once in your life.”</p>
<p>	“This is way more important than your job.” Abigail sat in the chair across from him, eyes wide.</p>
<p>	Sebastian furrowed his brow. “What could possibly be more important than this project that I have to finish by midnight?” She knew he had a deadline, he had told her he couldn’t hang out today. He wanted to finish by five so he could leave for a smoke, before his mother bothered him about family dinners.</p>
<p>	“(Y/N).” Abigail leaned forward and looked right at him, searching his face for a reaction.</p>
<p>	“What about her?” Sebastian asked, looking back to his computer. She was being weird.</p>
<p>	“She’s here. In the valley.”</p>
<p>	“What?” Sebastian looked up from his computer, finally, and back at Abigail, his dark eyes widening.</p>
<p>	“Now that’s the reaction I wanted.” Abigail laughed.</p>
<p>	“You’re a demon. Stop getting my hopes up.” Sebastian looked back to his computer. What a cruel joke.</p>
<p>	“No, I’m not kidding around! She’s back here, living on her grandpa’s old farm. Seriously.” </p>
<p>	“Seriously?” Sebastian felt a warmth start in his belly.</p>
<p>	“You still like her, don’t you?” Abigail asked, looking up at him again. She had a little knowing smile on her face, rocking back and forth on the chair.</p>
<p>	Sebastian glanced at the backpack that Abigail had dumped on his floor. “Were you going to see Emily?”</p>
<p>	“Don’t change the subject!” Abigail shoved his shoulder. “...But, yes. I ran into (Y/N) when she was shopping at my place.”</p>
<p>	“So you ran over here, in the opposite direction of your girlfriend’s house, just to tell me,” Sebastian said.</p>
<p>	“Yep.” Abigail nodded, proud of herself.</p>
<p>	“Damn. You’re a good friend.”</p>
<p>	“I know. You gonna go see her?”</p>
<p>	Sebastian looked up. “What? No. I can’t just go see her.”</p>
<p>	“You two obviously had something eight years ago. Do you think she might’ve moved back here in the hopes of reconnecting?”</p>
<p>	“She wouldn’t move her whole life just for me,” Sebastian said. “I don’t…” He blushed slightly and looked away. “I gotta get back to this project. Text me if you need anything. Have fun with Emily.”</p>
<p>	Abigail sighed a little bit. “Alright. But I’m gonna get you to talk to her, if it’s the last thing I do.” She stood and grabbed her backpack, then was out as fast as she had entered.</p>
<p>	Sebastian couldn’t get his mind off of that news after that. It was only a Tuesday, so the only people who would be at the Saloon tonight were the town alcoholics. He couldn’t go there in hopes of running into you. Besides, he didn’t really go into town any other day. Known as the town loner, he was afraid of acting out of character just so he could see you. People would know, right? Word spread quickly in this town. People obviously knew something had gone on between the two of you, although they didn’t understand the extent to which you knew one another. When you had left, he had become even more of a loner. Would people expect him to go into town more if he knew you were there? Would people expect him to break his routine just for a girl he had been with eight years ago?</p>
<p>	Except you weren’t just a girl. You were the sun, the sand between his toes on a summer day, the soft clouds in the sky that blocked out harsh rays and provided a cool warmth. You were the mellow breeze that transferred the scent of daisies into the air.</p>
<p>	And he was him. </p>
<p>	Sebastian groaned and put all of his energy into his project. He didn’t end up finishing until 6:30, and by that time, his mother and stepfather had finished making dinner and he was required to sit there while they ate mushroom stew. Maru was going on about something at the clinic, something Harvey said, and Sebastian could only think about you.</p>
<p>	“Sebby, how was your day?” Robin asked.</p>
<p>	Sebastian looked up from his bowl. “Oh, uh...just finished a project. That’s pretty much it.” He had only been awake for about seven hours, anyways. </p>
<p>	“Really?” Robin stirred her soup. “Why did Abigail rush in here all flustered, anyway? Didn’t even say hello to us.”</p>
<p>	Sebastian sighed. “She just had some news. No big deal. Hey, you helped the new farmer move in, right?”</p>
<p>	Robin stopped. “Mhm,” she said. </p>
<p>	“Why didn’t you tell me the new farmer was (Y/N)?”</p>
<p>	A pregnant silence. Robin swallowed. “I wanted you to find that out for yourself. Besides, she…” Robin looked over to Demetrius for help.<br/>	“She’s just now moving in. You don’t want to pressure her with anything,” Demetrius finished, as though it was fact.</p>
<p>	Sebastian groaned and stood up. “I’m going out for a smoke. Apparently Demetrius knows everything, so I’ll just remove myself from the situation.” He shoved his chair back to the table, causing all the dishes to rattle, then slammed the front door behind him. </p>
<p>God. They were all so stupid. At least Maru could’ve defended him a little bit. Sebastian grabbed a cigarette from the pocket of his hoodie and lit it, taking a drag. What would he even pressure her with? They had already had sex, it wasn’t like his parents could prevent that from happening. Besides, he was twenty-five. </p>
<p>Sebastian sat on the ground and took another drag of his cigarette. The water was starting to thaw from the winter, reminding him of the oncoming warm season. He rolled his eyes. Twenty-five years old and he still couldn’t stand summer. </p>
<p>	The days went by normally. Sebastian programmed until midnight, fell asleep late, woke up late. Practically solitary confinement, how he liked it. <br/>	That was right. How he liked it. </p>
<p>	Sam found him high out of his mind on Friday afternoon. “Come on, man, saloon time. You gotta kill me in pool.”</p>
<p>	Sebastian pulled himself up from his bed. “I thought the door was locked.”</p>
<p>	“I picked the lock.” Sam sat down next to him. “Come on, you really decided to get stoned on the night that (Y/N)’s probably gonna make her debut at the saloon?”</p>
<p>	“(Y/N)’s gonna be there?” Sebastian ran a hand down his face.</p>
<p>	“Well, sure. Everyone goes to the saloon on Friday. ...You do know she’s in the valley, right?”</p>
<p>	“Yeah, right, right.” Sebastian stood and looked through his drawers for a clean shirt. </p>
<p>	“Yoba, your hair’s all messy.” Sam ruffled the back of his hair. “You know, Penny and I are going out tomorrow. Why don’t you try and get (Y/N) to go with?”</p>
<p>	“Are you insane?”</p>
<p>	“No, I thought you guys were together.”</p>
<p>	“It’s been eight years!”</p>
<p>	“Don’t tell me you haven’t even spoken with her?”</p>
<p>	“Who do you think I am?”</p>
<p>	Sam groaned and grabbed a clean shirt and pair of pants for him. “Put these on. Sharpen up. Brush your teeth. I’ll meet you at the saloon.”</p>
<p>	Sebastian did as he said, and by six, he was in the saloon, and his high had worn off. He was crushing, as per usual. </p>
<p>	“Where’s Penny, Sam?” Emily was draped over Abigail on the sofa in the corner, a pipe in one hand. </p>
<p>	“Working. Speaking of working, shouldn’t you be?” Sam tried to hit the pool ball with a spin, but instead it barely moved. He sighed.</p>
<p>	“Maybe.” Emily took a hit. “I’m not high enough to deal with Clint and his advances.”</p>
<p>	“I’ll beat his ass,” Abigail added.</p>
<p>	“Baby, you are barely over five foot.” Emily kissed her nose. </p>
<p>	“I’ll berate him with words. And my sword.” Abigail laughed.</p>
<p>	“Penny’s only got Vince and Jas for company tonight?” Sebastian asked Sam.</p>
<p>	Sam looked up. “Nah, apparently there’s a new kid.”</p>
<p>	“A new kid in Pelican Town?” Sebastian asked, narrowing his eyes.</p>
<p>	Before anyone could answer, light flooded the room. To Sebastian, it did, at least. You, in the saloon, chatting with Gus, a big smile on your face. It was like it was all those summers ago, except now you were enjoying a glass of wine. You looked similar, not the same. Your hair was styled a little bit different, your posture a little bit worse, but still just as beautiful. </p>
<p>	“Hey, Sebastian, you dropped your stick.” Abigail laughed.</p>
<p>	Sebastian turned red and picked it up. God, that had probably been loud. “S-sorry.” He laughed nervously, then pulled up his hood.</p>
<p>	“Don’t get all nervous, now. Just go talk to her.” Emily stood up from her spot and draped an arm around Sebastian’s shoulders. She was an inch taller than him, and he hated it.</p>
<p>	“I can’t just talk to her,” Sebastian said. “Yoba. Don’t be ridiculous.”</p>
<p>	“You just need some softening up.” Emily dangled her pipe in front of his face.</p>
<p>	“I’m just gonna go home.” Sebastian shoved her off.</p>
<p>	“You haven’t even won yet!” Sam yelled. “I’m gonna claim this as my victory.”</p>
<p>	Sebastian pulled down his hood. “Oh, absolutely not.” He grabbed his cue stick and aimed it. “Letting you win goes against every single thing I stand for.”</p>
<p>	“Oh, yeah?” Emily draped herself over Abigail again, taking another hit. “Just like talking to a girl, apparently.”</p>
<p>	Sebastian shot her a look. “Yoba, Emily. You’re never gonna let it go until I talk to her, huh?”</p>
<p>	“Never.” Emily giggled. “You know, I had a vision while meditating the other day, and she was in it.”</p>
<p>	“Really?” Sam looked over to her, barely noticing as Sebastian scored another point.</p>
<p>	“Yeah, for real. It was just, like, a vision of her. She didn’t talk or anything.”</p>
<p>	Of course you didn’t talk. Sebastian remembered how you were. You only talked when you really needed to, and were willing to sit in comfortable silence with him. It was one of the things he loved. The silence.</p>
<p>	By the end of the night, he still couldn’t stop thinking about how you had looked at the saloon. In your pastels, a little bit of dirt on your face. Was that a basket of parsnips you had been holding? Of course you were giving some of your first harvest to Gus. </p>
<p>	“She’s always been kind like that,” Sebastian muttered to himself. He pulled his blankets up and fell asleep.</p>
<p>	Dreaming about you.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>thank you for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Olive Meets The Night</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>One hectic morning, he knocks on your door.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>At around eleven in the morning, there was a loud knock on your door. Great, just what you needed. Another person to talk to.</p>
<p>	So far, you had met Marnie on your porch at the crack of dawn, still in your pajamas. She was holding a little cat, practically begging for you to take it under your wing. With Olive, you already had a lot on your plate, but you couldn’t say no to someone like Marnie. So, you took the cat, named him Pebbles, and now he was making his way around your little cabin, making messes and getting into trouble. At least Olive loved him.</p>
<p>	While you worked in the garden that morning, Olive wandered around the yard with Pebbles, picking up sticks and throwing them into the nearby woods.</p>
<p>	“Mommy, why isn’t Pebbles chasing the sticks?”</p>
<p>	You laughed. “Pebbles is a cat, Ollie. Not a dog.”</p>
<p>	“So?” Olive picked up the cat and swung him around. Somehow, he didn’t seem to mind at all. </p>
<p>	“He doesn’t chase sticks. He does seem to love you, though.”</p>
<p>	“Of course he does. Everyone loves me. Did you know that Vincent and Jas are actually nice?”</p>
<p>	“Yes, I do know that. Did you know that I knew Vincent when he was a baby?”</p>
<p>	“No kidding!” As Olive went to run up to you, she tripped over one of the sticks in the yard. Pebbles jumped out of her arms when she fell, and her face slammed into the dirty ground. </p>
<p>	You jumped up almost immediately and grabbed your daughter. “Baby, are you okay?”</p>
<p>	She couldn’t help but cry loudly, so you hurried her inside. Sure, Olive was a smart and mature kid, but she was still a kid. You set her on the bed and went through your cabinets to find some bandages. Usually a kiss and a bandage fixed everything. </p>
<p>	That was when your doorbell rang. In the middle of your daughter crying, your cat scratching the cabinets, and your bandages rolling out of your cupboards and onto the floor.</p>
<p>	“Oh Yoba, what now?” You grabbed the bandages from the floor and hurried to the door, opening it.</p>
<p>	Sebastian. Oh fuck, it was Sebastian. Your eyes widened for a brief period. He still lived here? Of course, he may just be visiting family, of course, or hanging out with his old friends. You opened the door a bit wider, Olive still sobbing while Pebbles mewed loudly.</p>
<p>	“Hey. Can, um...can I come in?” He wasn’t looking at you, instead looking directly at his feet. </p>
<p>	“Yeah. Make yourself at home,” you responded, closing the door behind him. You hurried to attend your daughter almost immediately, giving the scratch on her head a bandage and a kiss. She sniffled and quieted down, holding her arms up so you could pick her up. She was getting bigger, but you could still hold her for a few minutes. She wiped her nose on your shoulder. Lovely.</p>
<p>	You looked to Sebastian. He was still staring at his lap. “Hi, Seb,” you said quietly.</p>
<p>	“You recognize me?”</p>
<p>	“Of course I do, silly.” Olive had calmed down a little bit more, and now she was breathing quietly, tired out from the fuss she had made. </p>
<p>	Sebastian laughed. “Right. So. Um…”</p>
<p>	“I guess I kinda owe you an explanation, right?” You sat next to him on the bed. Olive was fast asleep now, clutching onto your shirt, so you couldn’t set her down.</p>
<p>	“I...I don’t know. You can tell me what you want to, I understand keeping things to yourself. I’ve always…”</p>
<p>	“Been more prone to secrets. Yeah.” You looked at him. “...Hey. Look at me.”</p>
<p>	He finally looked up, and you smiled a little bit. You could see a dusting of red on his cheeks. </p>
<p>	“Hi. I’m (Y/N). I’m the new farmer in town.”</p>
<p>	“I’m Sebastian. Um...programmer,” he stuttered out.</p>
<p>	“Programmer, huh?”</p>
<p>	Neither one of you wanted to acknowledge the elephant in the room. You fell into a silence that lapsed into the room slowly, filling every corner of your little cabin. You gulped. “Um...this is Olive.”</p>
<p>	“Cute name. ...She’s your’s?”</p>
<p>	“Yeah.” You looked away for a moment. “She’s mine. I know it doesn’t look like it, but she is.”</p>
<p>	“No, I see it,” Sebastian said. After you didn’t respond, he continued. “She’s got the same skin tone as you. And she...she seems sunny.”</p>
<p>	You glanced over, and he turned red.</p>
<p>	“I-I mean...she seems nice. And you’re nice. So that’s cool.”</p>
<p>	“Yeah.” You finally set Olive down on the bed. She was breathing quietly. You knew she would know who Sebastian was if she woke, and you were terrified to think about it. This was too soon. Then again, it was seven years too late.</p>
<p>	You were almost positive Sebastian would be able to see how much the girl looked like him. After a bit more silence, he spoke.</p>
<p>	“Who’s the father?”</p>
<p>	The dreaded question. Of course, you hadn’t been with anyone else since Sebastian. You wondered if he had a girlfriend now, or a boyfriend, or somebody. Someone who lived in a city apartment with him, who slow danced with him in the kitchen to soft guitar, someone who brought him jewelry made of frozen tears and obsidian and quartz, who made him fresh sashimi and pumpkin stew for his lunches. Suddenly, you found yourself tearing up, unable to answer the question. </p>
<p>	Someone else answered it for you. “Are you my dad?”</p>
<p>	Yoba, that was Olive’s voice. You looked over to her quickly, as did he, his eyes wide. This was the first time you had seen the two of them together. And it was so obvious that Olive was his, even more so than before. They had the same face, those beautiful dark eyes and knowing expressions, even the same laugh and the same habits. It was strange.</p>
<p>	“Am...am I your…” Sebastian swallowed. “Um...I…”</p>
<p>	“Yeah, baby.” You put a hand on Olive’s cheek. “He’s your biological father.”</p>
<p>	Sebastian looked at you. “So when we-”</p>
<p>	“Mhm.” Your cheeks were blazing now.</p>
<p>Olive looked at Sebastian, examining him, putting a hand on his face. “You look like me,” she stated immediately. “Like...you look just like me.”</p>
<p>	“Do I?” he asked, letting out a pathetic laugh. </p>
<p>	You didn’t really have an answer. Olive probably wanted him to sweep her up in a hug, kiss her all over her head, hold her and tell her how much he missed her, how much he wanted to meet her. But of course, Sebastian hadn’t known that she existed. Not at all. You didn’t know what the townsfolk had told him, but knowing them, they probably whispered to themselves, looking at him out of the corner of their eyes. Hell, even Sam probably knew that he had a kid before Sebastian knew. </p>
<p>	“I’m sorry,” was all you could say, a pathetic excuse for an explanation.</p>
<p>	“Can...um...can I maybe have just a moment?” Sebastian stood, holding his head. You could only imagine the emotions that were swimming through his head. It was probably how you had felt when you had first found out. First the denial, then the anger, then sadness, and eventually, the overwhelming love. </p>
<p>	“Yeah,” you answered quickly. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you anything, I just-”</p>
<p>	“Wait!” Olive interrupted. She ran up to him. “I just met you, you can’t go! You can’t just leave! I know so much about you! How you like pumpkin soup, and- and Mommy says you’re like a cool autumn day. And how you have the nicest laugh, which I only heard once, but it was nice, and how you have a good smile. Can I…” She bit her lip. “...Can I see your smile? The really good one, the one that makes everyone smile?”</p>
<p>	Sebastian only looked at you. “...You said all that about me?”</p>
<p>	“It’s true.” You bit your thumbnail, looking down at your feet. “Anyone would think so.”</p>
<p>	Sebastian leaned down to Olive’s height, putting his hands on her shoulders. “I...I’m so sorry, Olive. I’m so sorry that I haven’t been here before.” He brought her into a hug, a tight hug, and she hugged him back, almost crying all over again. </p>
<p>	It wasn’t the meeting she had been hoping for, but it was even better. And as the two of them hugged for the very first time, you felt a weight on your chest lift, your heart pound. “I’m so sorry,” you whispered again.</p>
<p>	“I want to know everything,” Sebastian answered, looking straight at you for the first time he had arrived. His dark eyes were just like Olive’s. You couldn’t help but cry.</p>
<p>	The day ended with the three of you enjoying a meal together. Olive was chatting to her father, going on and on about her life thus far, the things she liked, trying to catch him up to speed. You could only apologize for the information coming his way, but he told you that he liked it. It made your heart warm. </p>
<p>	Once Olive was in bed, Sebastian lingered. You walked him out to your front porch and closed the door gently behind you. It was cold at night in the valley, it always had been. Even on those long summer nights you used to spend with Sebastian and Sam and Abigail and the rest of them, it was chilly. As you grew older, the nights ended with you fast asleep in Sebastian’s dark hoodie. And now, eight years later, as you shivered in the dark, he offered it to you again.</p>
<p>	“Oh, I…” You were going to refuse his offer, but instead took the hoodie, putting it over your clothes. “...Thank you.”</p>
<p>	“Sure.” Sebastian looked away. “Um...so...were you gonna tell me about this? Or was I going to have to find out on my own, like I did?”</p>
<p>	You bit your thumb, looking down at your feet. “Well, I was going to tell you. But I didn’t really know if you were in the valley still. For all I knew, you were in Zuzu. You know? I mean, you always wanted to go there.”</p>
<p>	“That’s true.” Sebastian looked at the deep woods next to your house. “Something kept me here, though.”</p>
<p>	“Your friends?”</p>
<p>	“Maybe.” He wanted to tell you that it was the hope that you would return that kept him here, in Pelican Town. “...I don’t really know. It’s like a pull, of sorts.”</p>
<p>	“Well...I guess I feel that same pull. I guess.” You looked up to him. He wasn’t too much taller than you, which was nice. You felt like you could see eye-to-eye with him. Other men were intimidating, but Sebastian was familiar. Even still, he was your best friend.</p>
<p>	“Right. ...What happened?” Sebastian asked, then, the question that you had been waiting for all day.</p>
<p>	“I lost contact with the valley the moment I told my dad about…” You swallowed. “Well, everything.”</p>
<p>	“Does he know Olive’s mine?”</p>
<p>	“No. I don’t think he really cares to know whose she is. I just know that he always thought my mother’s father was a bad influence on me, and being in Pelican Town every summer was wasting away my years. After...well, after Olive, I guess he said his suspicions were confirmed. No contact with my grandfather since.”</p>
<p>	“Well, when you were an adult, why didn’t you...I don’t know...why didn’t you think to find me?” Sebastian swallowed.</p>
<p>	“Why didn’t you think to find me?” you returned. The two of you stood in silence for a little bit.</p>
<p>	“...Right.” Sebastian let out a little chuckle. “I guess...I guess we’re both at fault, then.”</p>
<p>	“It doesn’t matter now, Seb,” you responded. “Olive is here, and she’s met you, and...Yoba, she knows you, and you know her. And there’s absolutely no obligation for you to be in her life, but-”</p>
<p>	“I’ll be back tomorrow.”</p>
<p>	“Tomorrow?”</p>
<p>	Sebastian looked at the deep woods again. “...Tomorrow.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>thank you for reading! also, i don’t know if this is on your end too, but it keeps saying that i have a note about the chapters being short? that was only intended for the prologue. but i have no fucking clue how to delete it from the ending notes for all the chapters so it’ll be there. if you can’t see it on your end, lmk!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. You’re Family</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Some awkward interactions. Some comforting ones.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Daddy, there’s a blue one right there!” </p>
<p>	“Just Dad is fine, Olive.” Sebastian sighed and picked her up, holding her up to the tree. “Yoba, why does Lewis hide them so high?”</p>
<p>	“So that the kids can’t win.” Olive glared and grabbed the blue egg, sticking it in her basket. “It’s so rigged.”</p>
<p>	“Right, of course, so rigged.” Sebastian laughed and set her down on the ground. “How many is that, now?”</p>
<p>	“Three,” Olive said, counting them in her basket. “I just gotta get, like, what? Three more? Then I’ll be the best.”</p>
<p>	Sebastian sighed. He wouldn’t count on that, not with Abigail playing. “Of course, Olive. Go get some more!”</p>
<p>	He wanted to go talk to Sam, but Olive grabbed his hand again, dragging him across the pavement and to the bushes. “There’s gotta be some here,” Olive mumbled. She ruffled through the bushes on her knees. Her overalls were already plenty dirty, but now that she was on the ground, mud was up to her elbows. Sebastian laughed and leaned down next to her. As the youngest in the egg hunt this year, Olive begged for her father to join her, so they were a team. Sebastian and Olive against the world. Against Abigail, Sam, Jas, and Vincent, at least. </p>
<p>	Whistle blow. “Time!” Mayor Lewis announced. The contestants hurried to the square and Lewis counted the eggs. “And the winner is...Abigail!” </p>
<p>	Abigail squealed and received her prize. Emily gave her a victory kiss. Sebastian saw Clint cringe in the corner of the town. </p>
<p>	“Aw, no fair!” Olive set down her basket and crossed her arms. “She’s an adult! She’s a year younger than my mommy! That’s so old!”</p>
<p>	“Maybe next year, Olive. Then you’ll be eight, right? I’m expecting you to beat me then.” Abigail laughed and ruffled her hair, even though Olive was royally pissed off. </p>
<p>	The rest of the festival was filled with good food and plenty of laughs. Sebastian snuck in a smoke near the end, before he left to go home and have dinner with his family. These fancy festival family dinners were one of his least favorite traditions, but Robin always cooked up at least one of his favorites.</p>
<p>	“Hey, Seb.” You were panting as you caught up to him. You had disappeared in the afternoon, and now he saw you again, all fancy. Your hair was styled a little bit differently, and you were wearing a dress with a sweater underneath, rubbing your arms. “Your mom, um...she invited us to the dinner. I don’t have much food at home, so, um...if it’s not intruding.”</p>
<p>	“Oh, um...sure. No issue from me.” Sebastian smiled and picked up Olive, who was a bit cleaner than this morning. She still had dirt on her face. He laughed a bit and kissed her forehead. “Have you met my mom yet, Olive?”</p>
<p>	Olive shook her head. “I don’t think so.”</p>
<p>	“You actually have, baby.” You kissed her cheek. “Remember that lady that helped us move in?”</p>
<p>	Olive’s eyes widened. “She was my grandma?”</p>
<p>	“Oh geez...grandma.” Sebastian set her down. “Maybe...maybe ease into that a bit.” He smiled a bit. It made your heart pound, but you would never admit that.</p>
<p>	Robin always made the best dinners. Stew and rolls and salads with a fancy garnish, gorgeous beverages with frothy films and bubbles popping on the surface of the glass. </p>
<p>	“Yoba, you’ve outdone yourself,” you said, digging into your stew. Sebastian wasn’t a big fan of eggs, so the feast wasn’t necessarily very egg-themed. </p>
<p>	“Anything for family,” Robin said. </p>
<p>	You froze a little bit. That was a little bit far, wasn’t it? You and Sebastian weren’t married, you weren’t even together anymore. The only thing that tied you together was Olive, the little girl that was a result of one night of passion. “Right.” You laughed a little bit nervously.</p>
<p>	“Mom, don’t pressure her into anything,” Sebastian warned. “Olive is my daughter, but (Y/N) isn’t my wife.”</p>
<p>	“Or girlfriend,” Maru added. Sebastian shot her a look.</p>
<p>	“I meant Olive, of course. Speaking of which, how’s the meal, sweetie?” Robin looked over to Olive, a little smile on her face.</p>
<p>	Her face was stuffed with bread. “It’s the best food I’ve ever had,” Olive said quickly. </p>
<p>	“I’m not a very good cook,” you admitted. </p>
<p>	“Well, your produce is certainly phenomenal,” Demetrius added. “After all, half of the salad is from your farm.”</p>
<p>	“Is it?” You paused and looked down at your plate. Oddly enough, the produce looked incredible. You supposed that was what washing it and preparing it did. Honestly, you weren’t necessarily great at that. </p>
<p>	“Of course,” Robin said. “We support local businesses. Speaking of which-”</p>
<p>	“Mom,” Sebastian warned.</p>
<p>	“Why don’t you get one of my house upgrades soon? I’ll give you a family discount!” She smiled a bit. “...For Olive, of course.”</p>
<p>	“We could use another room,” you mused. </p>
<p>	“Yeah, Mommy snores,” Olive commented.</p>
<p>	“I...I do not!” You giggled and ruffled her hair, and she laughed. “We’ve slept in the same room since she was a baby. She’s fine. But...it would be nice. I’ll take that into consideration, Robin.”</p>
<p>	“Call me Mom, sweetheart.”</p>
<p>	Oh, god. Your heart ached. As much as you wanted to have a motherly figure in your life again, you and Sebastian weren’t even an item anymore. Not married. You wondered how life would’ve panned out if you had stayed in the valley like he had begged that summer. Maybe you would live in Zuzu with him now, slow dance in the kitchen while Olive slept in the nursery. Make him sashimi and pumpkin stew, jewelry out of frozen tears and obsidian and quartz. Do all of the things that you had missed out on. </p>
<p>	“I’m sorry, I…” You looked around the table. Olive wasn’t really paying attention. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom real fast.”</p>
<p>	“Down the hallway to the left,” Demetrius said absently. </p>
<p>	“Thank you.” You stood and pushed your chair in. It made a harsh squeaking noise against the wooden floor, and you cringed, hurrying down the hallway. </p>
<p>	A few moments passed. “...Do you think I upset her?” Robin asked quietly.</p>
<p>	“Of course you upset her. Yoba, Mom, don’t you know what her family’s like? Besides, we’re not even together! You can’t pressure her to think of you as family when the only thing that keeps us linked is…” Sebastian looked over to his daughter. She was looking at him back, eyes wide. She hadn’t really seen him so angry before. He took a deep breath. “I’m just saying, ask her those things in private. She’s too kind to say anything in front of the whole family, Mom.”</p>
<p>	“What happened with her family?” Robin asked in a low whisper. </p>
<p>	Sebastian shook his head. “Olive, let’s go grab your Mommy and get dessert at the saloon. Okay? I think we just need some time as a family.” He picked up his daughter, who reached for another roll to stuff in her mouth. </p>
<p>	“Bye-bye, Grandma!” Olive giggled and held onto her father’s shoulders.</p>
<p>	Moments later, the three of you were on the road back to town. You and Sebastian lingered, walking at a nice pace, as Olive ran ahead of you two and collected berries, stuffing her cheeks full. </p>
<p>	“You okay?” Sebastian asked.</p>
<p>	“I was gonna ask you the same thing.” You laughed a bit and looked at him. “I don’t wanna make you feel awkward. You just found out about her, and...I don’t know. I abandoned you. I’m not really worthy to be a part of your family.”</p>
<p>	Sebastian paused. “...You’re plenty worthy,” he said simply. His heart ached. He wanted to say more, that you and Olive were everything he had ever wanted, that you hadn’t abandoned him like you thought you had, that he was ready to step up to the plate. “I just don’t want you to feel obligated in any way to deal with my family.”</p>
<p>	“Same here,” you mumbled. </p>
<p>	He wanted to grab your hand so badly. Instead, he cleared his throat. “I’m sure that was one of many dinners, though. Mom will wanna see her grandchild.”</p>
<p>	“I’m sure.” You laughed a little bit. You always liked to make Sebastian do most of the talking. You loved to hear his voice. Instead, the two of you lapsed into silence. You were the one who broke it. “I’ve still got your sweatshirt. You wanna drop by after and pick it up?”</p>
<p>	“Oh, yeah. I miss it.” He laughed a bit. The sound made your heart flutter. “It’s how I hide.”</p>
<p>	“Can’t really hide with that one around.” You glanced toward Olive, who was picking salmonberries off of a bush and trying to hold them all in her pockets. They were staining red. You sighed. “Even in her nice clothes…”</p>
<p>	“I can’t stand the taste of salmonberries,” Sebastian said. “She must get that from her mother.”</p>
<p>	“I don’t understand what you don’t like about them!”</p>
<p>	“Too sweet.” He wrinkled his nose.</p>
<p>	“You liked me plenty in high school,” you commented. “I think you have a soft spot for sweet things, whether you admit it or not.”</p>
<p>	Before he could answer, you shouted after Olive. “Baby, save your appetite for dessert!” You ran over and picked her up, and she laughed, kicking her legs in the air.</p>
<p>	Sebastian’s heart swelled. This was all he had ever wanted. </p>
<p>	He wore his hoodie once more on your porch, sitting on your front steps. It was getting warmer, but the night was still chilly. You sat next to him, your hands on your lap, breathing quiet.</p>
<p>	“It was hard to get her to bed, huh?” Sebastian asked.</p>
<p>	“She’s had too much sugar.” You laughed a little bit. “Sometimes kids need that stuff, though. Remember the luau when we were eight?”</p>
<p>	“How could I forget?” Sebastian laughed. “Candied yams in the stew? Stuffing our faces with caramels?”</p>
<p>	“I got so sick.” You laughed in response. </p>
<p>	“Didn’t you crash on the beach?”</p>
<p>	“That was you! You got a bunch of sand in your hair! I remember because I kept teasing you and saying it looked like dandruff.”</p>
<p>	“How did you even know the word dandruff as an eight-year-old?”</p>
<p>	“Trauma, probably.” You shrugged and laughed again. </p>
<p>	He had never really met your family, just your grandfather on your mom’s side. All you had told him before was that your mom had passed when you were little, and you lived with your dad. From what he had heard about your father, he didn’t like him. </p>
<p>	“Trauma. Yoba.”</p>
<p>	“Dead parents club.” You held out your fist to him. He bumped it, laughing again.</p>
<p>	“Dead parents club. With the both of us, we form a full set of parents.” Sebastian leaned back a little bit. </p>
<p>	“Not anymore. I was disowned, like, five years ago.” </p>
<p>	He was surprised with how lightly you relayed all the shit that happened to you. He paused. “...Really? I mean, you mentioned your dad kicking you out, but…”</p>
<p>	“Yeah. He disowned me when I turned eighteen. That’s how I ended up at Joja.”</p>
<p>	“You worked there?”</p>
<p>	“In a tiny little cubical. My wrists still hurt sometimes from all the computer work I did.” You massaged them.</p>
<p>	Sebastian took your wrists, holding them in his hands. They were burning, and his hands were cool, and it took your breath away. A pause, and he let go, and the two of you turned away abruptly. Silence, again.</p>
<p>	“What time is it?”</p>
<p>	Sebastian rolled his sleeve up and checked his watch. “Around one.”</p>
<p>	“Damn.”</p>
<p>	He stood, but you took his hand.</p>
<p>	“Hey, I can’t let you walk home when it’s this dark out.” You had a knowing look in your eyes, like you believed there was something out there. It sent chills down his spine. “I’ve got a couch. Just stay here tonight, okay?”</p>
<p>	“Okay.” Sebastian swallowed, and you stood up with him. </p>
<p>	“I’ll get some spare blankets for you. Do you need anything else?”</p>
<p>	Sebastian shook his head. “I should be good until the morning. Thanks.”</p>
<p> That night, he couldn’t stop thinking about how you were only one room over. About how your wrists had felt in his hands, about how you had invited him here. The couch was small, and his feet hung off the side, but just being here was ten times more comfortable than his basement. Whatever you had believed was out there couldn’t get to him in the safety of the farmhouse. The fact that you cared for his safety over any awkwardness that could happen made his heart swell. He fell asleep without giving his mother a call on the home phone. </p>
<p>	This felt more like home, anyway.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>thank you for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Coffee and Spring Onions</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>He wants you. You meet an unlikely friend.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Where is she?”</p><p>	“With Penny.”</p><p>	“This early?”</p><p>	“It’s ten.”</p><p>	“You’re kidding.” Sebastian sat up from the creaky old couch. “My back is killing.”</p><p>	“Sorry. I’ll get some aspirin for you.” You pushed your hair back. It was definitely getting hotter out. “Coffee?”</p><p>	“Yes, please.” Sebastian massaged his shoulders and pulled the blanket off, setting it off to the side. He stood and walked next to you, leaning down next to your coffee pot. “That’s an old one.”</p><p>	You laughed. “Yeah, it was cheap. I nabbed it from the break room at Joja.” You began to brew the coffee, and he watched your process. </p><p>	“You stole it from Joja? That’s kinda badass.”</p><p>	“Please, I just needed a brewer. It’s a piece of shit, anyways.” You hit the side of it and it began to whir. “You just need quality coffee, not a quality machine.”</p><p>	“Really?” Sebastian looked through your fridge. His shirt was off, and it was like he belonged here. </p><p>	“I don’t have much.”</p><p>	“Strawberries?”</p><p>	You wrinkled your nose. “They’re from Joja. I was on a budget. I’m gonna plant some of my own now, though.” </p><p>	“Still. You know how Maru likes them? Little bit of sugar, washed nicely. It can help even a wrinkled Joja strawberry.”</p><p>	“Yeah? I thought you hated Maru, Seb.” You laughed a little teasingly.</p><p>	“Nah, we just don’t get along well. But when I’m in the wrong, a little bit of strawberries with sugar is a good apology.”</p><p>	You handed him his aspirin and a cup of water. “Drink up, you big softie.”</p><p>	“I’m not a softie,” Sebastian scoffed, taking the aspirin and downing it. He chugged the water. “Manly.”</p><p>	“Sure.” You ruffled his hair, then handed him a warm cup of coffee. You put ice in your own, stirring it with a little bit of sugar and milk. “I know you like your’s black. Don’t judge me.”</p><p>	“I’m not judging.” He raised his eyebrows and took a sip. It wasn’t the best coffee he had ever had, but you had made it.</p><p>	“Do you need anything before you head out? I’ll try to whip up breakfast, but I’m not the best cook.” You sighed a little bit and looked around through your fridge. “Oh! Marnie gave me a pie. ...Pie for breakfast?”</p><p>	Sebastian laughed. “Sounds good to me.”</p><p>	You had a rickety old table in the corner of your room, three creaky and uncomfortable chairs. They sat on uneven legs, rocking back and forth when you sat in them. </p><p>	“My mom could fix this up for you. Easy.”</p><p>	“Sure, but…” You paused. “This is the only piece of furniture that was my grandfather’s that’s left. Dunno. I like to think about how my mom sat in these chairs when she was little.”</p><p>	“I get that. You know the old desk in my room?”</p><p>	“Yeah.”</p><p>	“That was my dad’s.”</p><p>	The two of you ate your pie in silence for a little bit, sipped your coffees quietly. Once Sebastian had finished, he brought his plate up to the sink and began to wash it. It was this quiet domesticity that got your heart pumping. You stood up next to him. “Hey, um…”</p><p>	He nodded a little bit. “Mhm.” </p><p>	The two of you always spoke with no words. You put a hand on his arm, his bare arm. It was a beautiful pale, like the moon, like twinkling stars. Your heart flipped. He was thin, as he mostly spent time at his desk, but you liked him that way. He had always been like that, when you were teenagers. When you had first fallen in love with him.</p><p>	Now, you knew that you still had lingering feelings, but you weren’t sure that they had blossomed into love just yet. Seeing him with Olive had pushed those feelings forward, feelings that you had tried to ignore. </p><p>	And now he looked at you with those eyes. Yoba, those eyes. A little smile. “It smells like nature in here,” he mumbled. “I kinda like it. Weirdly.”</p><p>	“Thought you were a city boy,” you whispered back.</p><p>	“Thought I was too.” He brushed your hair back. “Are you tired from working on the farm all morning?”</p><p>	You laughed a bit. “More emotionally exhausted than anything. Olive talked my ear off this morning. You slept through it all, somehow.”</p><p>	“Did I?”</p><p>	You nodded. “Mhm. ...All of it.” Your voice faded at the end of your sentence. He looked a little bit different, now. A little bit tougher than before. It made your heart leap.</p><p>	“Well...could I help you recharge?” he asked. He moved a hand down your jawline. Your knees almost collapsed, shaking underneath you. You hadn’t felt like this in so long. Not since that morning at the bus stop, the first morning of fall. He was familiar and cool, and you had missed it so much.</p><p>	“Yeah,” was your simple answer, and the two of you collapsed into one another. When he kissed you all over, it made your body heat up inside, like you had just swallowed a wonderful sip of tea and it was making its way down your throat and into the pit of your stomach. </p><p>	One thing led to another, and the day met the night once more. In the late morning, sun met moon, skin met skin, became one. Yet again, the two of you felt an undeniable draw towards one another. Sebastian felt this pull. Not towards the valley, it had never been towards the valley. It had always been towards you. And this pull he had felt, the yanking that kept him in his mother’s house for so long, had been so he could just see you again. And now he was seeing you, he was loving you, he was touching you; on a creaky farmhouse bed that lurched with every shake, his half-drank coffee cooling on the countertop in the adjacent room. </p><p>	When Sebastian found himself walking on the dirt path back to his house, freshly showered, wearing his hoodie and a pair of spare sweats, he reflected on the moment the two of you had spent together again. He had wanted that for so long. It was instinct. He was so attracted to you, incredibly attracted, and it hurt him to even be separated from you. </p><p>	When he opened the door to his home, Robin perked up from her desk. “You didn’t even call last night, Sebby.”</p><p>	“I’m an adult, Mom. I love you, but I was a little bit busy. I’m sorry I didn’t call.”</p><p>	“Right.” Robin crossed her arms. “Did you two…”</p><p>	“Oh my yoba, Mom. There’s a seven-year-old girl in the same room. We would- if Olive was around...oh my yoba. I’m getting to work.”</p><p>	“I’ll call you up for dinner!”</p><p>	“Okay!” Sebastian closed the door behind him. He picked up his phone and dialed Sam’s number, twisting the cord in between his fingers, tapping his foot absentmindedly on the hardwood floor. </p><p>	“Hey, dude, what’s up? You good?”</p><p>	“Yeah, I’m great.”</p><p>	“Holy shit.” Sam laughed on the other end of the phone. “You’re in love with her, aren’t you? Finally made a move, did we?”</p><p>	“Okay, for one, I definitely have feelings for her. Two, we have a child together, for yoba’s sake. And three, I did make a move.”</p><p>	“Kissed her? About time.”</p><p>	Silence on Sebastian’s end. “Well, yes, I did kiss her-”</p><p>	“You fucked her?” Sam yelled. Sebastian could hear shushing, and a “sorry, Mom!”, and he laughed a bit.</p><p>	“Okay, that just makes it sound vile.”</p><p>	“Fine. You two made love. Yoba, Seb, you did it again? What are you two, rabbits?”</p><p>	“I don’t understand that reference in the slightest.”</p><p>	“They have a lot of...whatever.”</p><p>	“Oh, please, we’ve done it twice. And there was a whole eight year gap in between that time.”</p><p>	“Did you at least confess your love before fucking her?”</p><p>	“You’re disgusting. And...maybe?”</p><p>	“What.”</p><p>	“Maybe. I mean, we had breakfast, and Olive’s out getting tutored, so it was just the two of us. So she made us coffee, and we talked for a bit, and she told me she was stressed out, so I offered to...recharge her.”</p><p>	“Did you seriously say that?”</p><p>	“Yes. Okay, she was into it!”</p><p>	“Fine, she was into it. But that is in no way confessing your love. At least take her out on a date. Yoba.”</p><p>	“I will! I’ll ask her on a date. That’s simple, right? We had sex, we kissed, she had my daughter...right. She’ll say yes. ...Right?”</p><p>	“She’ll say yes.”</p><p>	“But what if she doesn’t, though? What if she’s scared that we break up and Olive is crushed?”</p><p>	“Sebastian, that’s so specific. ...Is that more what you’re afraid of?”</p><p>	Sebastian paused, twirling the cord in his hand still. “When she moved back to the valley, I just needed to talk to her. That was it. And then, I found out I was a father, which was...insane, to say the least. And now, there’s this other person in my life, that I love more than anything else in the world. And...I love (Y/N). There’s no doubt about it, I love her. But I love Olive too. In a different way. I have to keep them both out of harm’s way, but if I somehow fuck things up and Olive’s out of my life forever, I won’t know what to do with myself.”</p><p>	Sam sighed a little bit. “Sebastian, it’s one date. I promise you that it’ll be okay.”</p><p>	Sebastian looked up at the ceiling of his basement. His mother called his name for dinner. “You’re right. I’ll talk to you later. I love you.”</p><p>	“Love you too.”</p><p>	Click. Sebastian put the phone on the receiver and hurried up the stairs to face the multitude of questions that his lovely family would have in store for him. </p><p>	Meanwhile, you were on the search for a bit of spring onions. Thanks to the weird country show on your television giving you advice, you had decided to try your hand at foraging. Olive was back by your side now, but you didn’t have any cash, nor any money to spend at the saloon for dinner. You didn’t mind going hungry for one night, but you couldn’t let your daughter sleep on an empty stomach. </p><p>	So far, you found plenty of berries and produce like that. You had a little bit of leftover parsnips from your last harvest, so you wanted to get some spring onions to go with them. </p><p>	“Apparently, there’s a deposit right by where the lake meets the ocean, over here.” Olive was on your shoulders, a little bit sleepy from her daily activities with Vincent and Jas. Those two kids could run a shy girl like her into the ground. </p><p>	“I’ll just eat the berries,” Olive yawned. “Let’s go home.”</p><p>	“Five more minutes?” you asked her. “We will go home, just give me five more minutes to look for these onions.”</p><p>	“Are you lost?”</p><p>	“What?” you scoffed. “No! ...I would tell you if I was.”</p><p>	“Right.” Olive laughed a little bit. </p><p>	Three minutes of walking and searching passed, and you finally found them, sticking out of the ground in an area surrounded by mud. Their leaves looked like heaven to you. “Oh, thank Yoba.” You kneeled down in the dirt and plucked them up, putting them in your basket next to some berries and horseradish. </p><p>	“Save some for me!” A familiar redhead ran up to the deposit. “Yoba, I’ve been looking for some spring onions all day. Can’t believe you found them that quickly.”</p><p>	You laughed a bit. “It’s the desperation for a meal that carries me through.” There was a bit of a pause. “I’m sorry, what’s your name again?”</p><p>	“Oh, Leah. I live in the artist’s cottage around here.” She took a few more of the onions into her own basket. “You’re (Y/N), right? Who’s the little one?”</p><p>	“You don’t know? I’m a whole scandal ‘round these parts,” Olive said, making fun of the country accent some of the gossiping women had. </p><p>	Leah giggled. “You’re a cutie. Let me guess...sisters.”</p><p>	“My daughter,” you said. “Yoba, do you not gossip with the other townspeople?”</p><p>	Leah shrugged. “I don’t have time for gossip. I have foraging, my art, and fishing. Plus, sometimes I make the short trip down to the beach so Elliot and I can bounce ideas off of one another. It boosts creativity.”</p><p>	“I’m an artist too,” Olive added. She slowly jumped off of your shoulders and into the mud, splattering a bit on your face. You rubbed it off, but you were positive it was still there.</p><p>	“Oh, really? What medium do you like to work with?” Leah asked.</p><p>	Olive wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know what that means, but one time I drew me and Mommy and Daddy at the farm.” </p><p>	Leah just laughed again. “Wow, who’s the lucky fella?”</p><p>	You sighed. “Robin’s son.”</p><p>	“Robin’s son? But he’s just twenty-five, isn’t he?”</p><p>	“And I’m twenty-three.”</p><p>	There was another pause. “...Oh. I get it. That’s why you were talking about gossip.”</p><p>	“You got it,” you said, then smiled. </p><p>	“Well, I couldn’t care less about gossip or scandals or whatnot. You two seem sweet. Why don’t you come back to my cottage? We can make a great salad with some of those goods.”</p><p>	You stood, brushed off your overalls. Mud clung to your fingers, but you didn’t mind. “Ollie, what do you say!”</p><p>	“Yeah!”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>thank you for reading! feedback and comments are heavily appreciated!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Rabbits</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Dancing, laughing. Stressing. A child saving her mother.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i’m sorry this took me so long! it took a bit to get inspiration.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“This stupid Flower Dance is so heteronormative.” Abigail brushed the dirt off of her white dress. “It’s not like I’m getting married. This is so stupid.”</p>
<p>	“I kinda like wearing a dress,” Emily said. “Even if, for some stupid reason, they don’t let me dance with you.”</p>
<p>	“Well, if I danced with you, Sebastian would have to dance with Shane.” Abigail started to giggle just thinking about it. “That would be a sight.”</p>
<p>	“Shane would trip over Sebastian, Sebastian would cough cigarette smoke into his hair and it’d end in a fistfight, ruining the whole dance.”</p>
<p>	Abigail paused. “...Maybe we should make them dance together. Speaking of Sebastian, where the hell is he? His spawn is here.” Abigail tilted her chin in the direction of Olive, who was running in a circle with the other two children. </p>
<p>	“Rabbits,” Sam said. “Him and (Y/N) are off being rabbits.” </p>
<p>	“What the fuck does that mean?” Abigail asked. She laughed. “You’re weird.”</p>
<p>	“It means what you think it means.” Sam’s eyes widened.</p>
<p>	A moment passed between them. Then, Emily looked straight at Sam. “No, shit! You’re serious!”</p>
<p>	“Since the Egg Festival.” Sam added. “I’m serious, he told me himself. Now they’re doing that shit all the time.”</p>
<p>	“No way.” Emily leaned back and laughed. “They’re gonna make Olive the second.”</p>
<p>	“At least she’s a good kid. Wouldn’t mind having another one of her around.”</p>
<p>	“I would. I’d get to see him even less,” Sam said. He sighed.</p>
<p>	Meanwhile, Sebastian was running his fingers through your hair, sighing softly. You had showered and changed the sheets. “Mmm...what time is it?” You buried your head in his chest. </p>
<p>	Sebastian looked at his watch. “Eleven. Shit.”</p>
<p>	“What?”</p>
<p>	“Flower Dance.” </p>
<p>	“That’s today?!” You sat up in your bed, pulling your blankets up, a little bit ashamed, looking for something to wear. Sebastian’s suit was hanging by the door, and he was completely naked, as were you. </p>
<p>	“Hey, what’s the big idea?” He reached for the blankets and pulled them over his waist. “You can be naked in your own house, I just feel weird.”</p>
<p>	“Fine, fine.” You waved your hand. “Go get changed, and we’ll arrive a little bit after one another.</p>
<p>	“We already have a kid. Why do we have to keep anything going on a secret?” Sebastian stood with the comforter around his waist, as though he was wearing a heavy robe. He threw his pants on quickly, almost tripping over the blanket as he pulled them up. He looked to the side. “Nice ass.”</p>
<p>	“Shut the hell up,” you replied, a giggly tremor in your voice. You pulled up a skirt to your waist and threw on a sweater. “Have fun dancing around in that field of yours’.”</p>
<p>	“Now it’s your turn to shut the hell up.” His voice was low, and sent a shiver up your spine. He leaned over and kissed you softly. “Let’s go.”</p>
<p>	“Together?”</p>
<p>	“Yeah. Why not?”</p>
<p>	You shrugged. “Dunno. I feel like a lot of the ladies think I’m some kind of town slut.”</p>
<p>	Sebastian paused. “They said that?”</p>
<p>	“Yeah.” You rolled your eyes. “I had to tell Olive what a slut was. She asked.”</p>
<p>	“You told her the truth?”</p>
<p>	“Well, sure. She would’ve known if I was lying.” You sat down on your bed, pulling up your socks and lacing your shoes. </p>
<p>	Sebastian sat next to you. He was wearing his blue suit loosely, fussing with the tie. “Well, for what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re a slut.”</p>
<p>	“Nice to hear from the person I’m fucking.” You rolled your eyes. </p>
<p>	“Come on, sweets, you know you’re nothing like they say. Besides, I helped make Olive too.” Sebastian wrapped his arms around you and rocked you back and forth.</p>
<p>	“I gotta put my shoes on, Sebby!” You giggled. “Come on, we gotta go.”</p>
<p>	“Do we have to? ...Alright.” Sebastian stood up and tugged on his tie again. “Alright, darling.” He held out an arm. “I gotta dance with Abigail. You excited to watch me step all over her feet?”</p>
<p>	“Oh, I look forward to it.” </p>
<p>	The walk to the Flower Dance was more like a jog. After all, you were more than two hours late at this point. You were surprised nobody had called your house. </p>
<p>	The music was light and flutey. You remembered Abigail practicing her flute when you were children, hoping she could play someday for the dance instead of dancing in it. She ended up dancing anyways, which she complained about every year, talking your ear off late into the summer. Sebastian hurried to catch up to his friends, and you ran over to your daughter, sweeping her up in a hug. </p>
<p>	“Hi, baby!”</p>
<p>	“Mommy, where were you?”</p>
<p>	“Just at home, getting ready.” You kissed her forehead.</p>
<p>	Vincent was looking at you, eyes wide. “You’re the same age as my brother.”</p>
<p>	“Younger, actually,” you said. “I knew you when you were a little baby.” </p>
<p>	Before the conversation could continue, the Mayor announced the start of the dance. You and Olive stood on the side and watched as the young adults in the town danced. Abigail and Sebastian looked incredibly unenthused, stepping on one another, tripping over themselves. You couldn’t help but laugh a little bit, trying to contain it, a hand over your mouth. Olive was the same as you, giggling at her father. All the older adults awwed at their children, hands on their faces. </p>
<p>	The Flower Dance ended in a fade, people taking down decorations while children quietly munched on sweets. You and Olive walked back when it was dark. She was practically falling asleep on you, the makeshift flower crown Emily had made her slipping further down her head with every step. After you tucked her into bed, you waited by your phone. For what, you didn’t know. For some reason, you felt a pull towards the phone. And when it rang, you answered immediately.</p>
<p>	“It’s (Y/N),” you said quietly. “What’s up?”</p>
<p>	“Hey, sweets.” Sebastian’s voice, even over the phone, sent shivers down your spine. “Same time tomorrow?”</p>
<p>	“Oh, I...I was planning on exploring the mines tomorrow.”</p>
<p>	“Those old caves? Are you sure?”</p>
<p>	“Yeah, I’ve done it before. There’s just a few slimes and bugs. Nothing I can’t handle.” You giggled a little bit. </p>
<p>	“Alright. ...The next day then?”</p>
<p>	“The next day.”</p>
<p>	The two of you sat in silence on the phone for a moment. Then, he spoke. “Did I ever tell you that your laugh is the prettiest sound I’ve ever heard?”</p>
<p>	You were thankful he couldn’t see how red your face got. “...It is?” That was the first time he had really complimented you out loud(when the two of you weren’t having sex, at least). It wasn’t anything about your body, just about you in general. The way you were.</p>
<p>	“Mhm. ...It’s late. Goodnight.”</p>
<p>	“Goodnight,” you responded softly. There was a click and a dial tone, and you put the phone on the receiver.</p>
<p>	A little hand tugged on your pajamas. “Mommy? Was that Dad?”</p>
<p>	You looked down. Olive was still tired, rubbing her eyes, but she was trying her best to look up at you. </p>
<p>	“Yeah, baby. That was your Dad.” You picked her up. “You need to sleep. Stop listening to my conversations.” You pecked her forehead. </p>
<p>	“Are you guys gonna get married?” she asked sleepily.</p>
<p>	You laughed a bit. “Dunno. Depends on how he feels, sweetie.” You set her back in her bed and tucked her in. “Come on, go to sleep.”</p>
<p>	“Okay.” She settled, and was soon asleep. You curled up next to her and passed out almost as quickly as she had. </p>
<p>---</p>
<p>	The mines were hotter than you had thought they would be. Then again, they got colder as you went further down. You had only faced a few modest monsters at this point, just some slimes, some bugs, the usual. </p>
<p>	When you climbed down the ladder to the next level, your feet didn’t land on solid ground. Instead, the bottoms of your boots were coated in a thick layer of slime. “What the hell?” you mumbled to yourself, looking around. The whole level was coated in slime, green goo, and a few slimes the same height as your or bigger were hopping near you. “Oh, yoba.” You unsheathed your sword.</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>	Olive didn’t really know how to use the phone. She was horrible with memorizing numbers, and when she had it written down, she either lost it or mistyped it and gave up. Calls weren’t all that important to her anyway. If she wanted to say something, she would tell them in person. Easy. </p>
<p>	However, when it was one in the morning and you hadn’t returned from the mines, she wanted so desperately to make a call. She wasn’t worried about you, necessarily. You could handle your own, she knew you could. Besides, maybe you had just stayed out at someone’s and forgotten to tell her.</p>
<p>	No, you wouldn’t forget. Olive was starting to get worried around two in the morning. The stars were so much brighter in Pelican Town than in Zuzu. However, the streets of Zuzu were well-lit. The dirt roads of Stardew Valley were so dark she could hardly see her hand in front of her. This wasn’t much help while trying to navigate at night. She knew where her father’s house was, she had been there many times, after all, but the dark woods were so much more different at night. Without you.</p>
<p>	Olive ran as fast as her little legs could run. When she lost her balance and tripped on a stick, she scuffed her whole face up, which just added insult to injury. Or, rather, injury to insult. </p>
<p>	It took her a bit to get up again. Her heart was pounding even faster than before. She wasn’t sure what time it was, but it seemed even darker than before, and she had been walking this pathway forever. Olive heard an owl and froze up. Her legs felt like stone pillars. No, they felt like tree trunks with roots, burying into the ground, attaching to the soil below her, keeping her there forever. </p>
<p>	Wouldn’t it be nice to stay here? It was peaceful at night, even if it was a little scary. She was so, so sleepy.</p>
<p>She couldn’t fall asleep without her mother around. She was doing this for her mother.</p>
<p>	Olive did everything in her power to snap the roots growing from the bottoms of her feet, picking up her pace. And she cried while she ran, cold tears falling down her face. It was so chilly, she thought they might stick to her chin like icicles.</p>
<p>	She felt like she might pass out. Breathing heavily, she finally spotted the faint lighting of the lanterns outside of her father’s house. She gave the door two knocks, then three. Then some more knocks, louder this time.</p>
<p>	Her father answered the door. Thank god, he would understand why she was here.</p>
<p>	“Ollie?” Sebastian kneeled down to her height and put a hand under her chin. “Are you okay, baby? It’s four in the morning.”</p>
<p>	Olive wasn’t aware how nervous she actually was. She was shaking, now, tears falling down her face rapidly. “M-my...um...my mommy is...she’s not home. And I haven’t seen her.”</p>
<p>	“Have you eaten dinner?” Sebastian picked her up quickly, closing the door behind them. He held her tightly, walking to the kitchen and setting her on the counter. “Bundle up, baby. You’re shaking.” He took out some items from the fridge. </p>
<p>	Olive did as he said, holding herself on the counter. “Mommy didn’t come home,” she whispered. “I...I can’t sleep without her home. And it’s so late, Dad.”</p>
<p>	“It is late.” Sebastian chopped the tops off of some strawberries. He wouldn’t show it to her, but he was panicked beyond belief. You wouldn’t just go and abandon Olive, would you? Leave her with him, now that he had met her? No, you wouldn’t do that. Never.</p>
<p>	He shook the thoughts out of his head. “Did you see her this morning? What was she doing today?”</p>
<p>	“She went mining.” Olive sniffled.</p>
<p>	“Mining.” Sebastian almost felt angry. “I told her to stay out of those mines. Does she know...does she know what’s down there?”</p>
<p>	Olive shook her head. “I don’t know, I don’t know!” She sniffled, wiping her eyes.</p>
<p>	Sebastian paused a moment. “I’m sorry. I’m not mad at you or your mom.” He gave her the strawberries in a bowl. “I’m gonna go get your mommy, okay? I’ll wake up your grandma.”</p>
<p>	Once Robin was briefed of the situation, Sebastian took off, a cigarette in one hand, slingshot in the other. His heart was pounding, thinking of you, in the mines, alone. Little Olive, back at his mother’s home, crying still. He would do anything for her.</p>
<p>	He put out his cigarette and tossed it. Now wasn’t the time to stress smoke. He needed to concentrate. He needed these nerves.</p>
<p>	He would do anything for you.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>thank you for reading! comments are appreciated!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Those Damn Cigarettes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>If it weren’t for those damn cigarettes, maybe he wouldn’t need someone else to help.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>sorry this took so long! had some life drama and a depressive episode. thank you for your support &lt;3</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sebastian always wondered what your life would’ve been like if you had stayed. What his life would’ve been like. That first day of fall, when you said goodbye at the airport, when you had made something, and neither of you even knew it. </p>
<p>	What if you had stayed? What if you had lived with him and his family, and he was there when Olive was born, when she took her first steps, said her first word. He wondered what it had been. He would have to ask you later.</p>
<p>	Right, he would ask you later. He was a little bit busy now, after all. </p>
<p>	He used to take walks in the mines, but only the first few levels. Sometimes had a smoke, brought a slingshot down to take out the slimes and bugs that got in his way. Only a few, though. He truly didn’t know how far down you had gone, and he was worried, especially since you hadn’t come back. Sebastian moved down the ladder quickly, gliding down on his hands, his feet buzzing when he hit the stone floor. The first layer had definitely been occupied recently, since there was an open ladder to the next level and no monsters in sight. Sebastian knew he was lucky. He scaled more and more ladders.</p>
<p>	After a few levels, he was growing short of breath. He cursed those damn cigarettes that made his lungs hurt like this. Tossing his pack to the side, he climbed down to one more level.</p>
<p>	His feet didn’t meet solid ground. Instead, they stuck to the cold floor, a floor that was uneven and jagged, coated in a thick layer of green slime. When he picked up a foot, it oozed off of the sole of his sneaker. Walking was even harder on this terrain. Not to mention his beating heart and screaming lungs. Sebastian grabbed the slingshot from his back pocket and loaded it with a cherry bomb, putting his lighter in between his teeth.</p>
<p>	The first giant slime bounced toward him, slow and lumbering. He lit the cherry bomb and shot it towards the slime. The bomb sunk into the monster, then blew up, destroying the giant green blob from the inside. Slime flew everywhere, sticking to his clothing and hair. He shook, then hurried off, looking for where you might be. </p>
<p>	His lungs were even worse now. He was practically shaking, his legs weak, his arms almost numb. He didn’t know how long he had been down in the mines at this point, possibly a few hours. The deep thumping of his heart seemed to resonate all throughout his body, into his feet, into the slime below him, sending a rhythm throughout the entire level, telling enemies his whereabouts. It was terrifying.</p>
<p>	That was when he saw you. Behind a large slime, hair coated, body half-encased in the ground. “(Y/n)!” Sebastian yelled. His heart was beating faster now, and his shout echoed throughout the mine, making the slime on the walls and floor jiggle menacingly. It was like they were telling him you would never be safe, that you were part of this mine now, here forever. </p>
<p>	His feet were sinking. He tried to draw them up, and his breathing was short again. He cursed those damn cigarettes, but he wanted one more than ever now. He grabbed a cherry bomb and loaded it, then remembered you were right there. If he fired at that slime, you could be burned alive. Then it would be his fault you were…</p>
<p>	Yoba, those damn cigarettes! He had been smoking for almost seven years, almost since he realized you weren’t coming back. They weren’t your fault, they were his. But now, they were keeping you from him. Now, he was unable to help you, like he wanted to. </p>
<p>	He was useless.</p>
<p>	Olive wouldn’t be okay as an orphan. She knew he needed you. She needed you more than she needed him. He aimed the cherry bomb to his feet.</p>
<p>	“No need for that, kid.” </p>
<p>	Sebastian looked behind him. Strong arms lifted him out of the goo, setting him back on his feet. </p>
<p>	“Thanks for taking care of some of the slimes back there. I’ll get her. You keep aiming your bombs at the ones coming after us.”</p>
<p>	It was that man that lived in a tent behind his house. What was his name? Sebastian cursed himself for never bothering to learn it. “Thank you, um-”</p>
<p>	“Linus. There will be time for thanks later. Load your slingshot.”</p>
<p>	He did. </p>
<p>---</p>
<p>	“I can’t thank you enough. Do you need food? A warm bed? It’s cold out here, isn’t it?”</p>
<p>	“It’s not too bad. Sebastian, I chose this life. I like it. It’s simple. I don’t have to deal with all that technology stuff that you young people are all gabbing about these days. Too confusing for my tastes.” Linus set you down inside his tent. He felt your forehead. “She’s a bit cold, but she’ll be fine. Do you need anything else?”</p>
<p>Sebastian shook his head. He didn’t really know what to say, other than-</p>
<p>“I told you, I don’t need any more thank yous. I was just doing my part as a neighbor. Bring her back to the clinic, would ya? I’ve got to get some rest, if you don’t mind. These old bones aren’t what they used to be.”</p>
<p>“Sure thing.” Sebastian picked you up and gently placed you over his shoulder, holding you tight. “Again, thank you, Linus.”</p>
<p>Linus just shook his head and sighed again. “What did I say?”</p>
<p>“Right. I’ll see you.” Sebastian hurried out of the tent and back to his house. He opened the door and saw his mother at the front counter, tapping her fingers on the wood. Olive was in one of the side chairs, fast asleep.</p>
<p>Robin noticed them almost immediately. “Oh, thank Yoba. Are you okay?”</p>
<p>“I’m fine. I’m bringing (y/n) to the clinic. If Olive wakes up and I’m not back, tell her everything is okay, alright?”</p>
<p>“Alright.” Robin nodded. She looked to Olive, then back to Sebastian. “You know, you’ve turned out to be a really awesome kid.”</p>
<p>Sebastian sighed a bit. “Mom, I’m not a kid.” He turned to exit, then looked back at her. “...But thanks. I’ll be back, okay?”</p>
<p>“Okay.”</p>
<p>The journey to Harvey’s clinic wasn’t too long by bike, but it was a decent trek by foot. He hurried as fast as he could, even though his lungs were still burning. He knew that Maru worked at the clinic on Tuesdays, but he wasn’t sure what time it was now and whether she would be there. When he arrived in town, it looked calm, unaffected by the troubles of the day. “Must be early,” he mused, then opened the clinic door.</p>
<p>Harvey was sipping a cup of coffee. Evidently, he had taken care of the night shift, despite not much happening in Pelican Town in terms of sicknesses. He looked up from the desk immediately. “Sebastian? Maru’s not…” He paused. “That’s the new farmer, isn’t it?”</p>
<p>	Sebastian nodded. “Passed out in the mines. Just got her out. Might wanna check her out.” He tried to sound as professional as possible without freaking out, but his heart was still pounding as fast as it had been in the mines. Linus had said everything was okay, but he needed a medical professional to tell him for certain.</p>
<p>	“Of course. I’ll take care of her for now. You go get cleaned up, okay? I’ll call you when she’s awake.”</p>
<p>	“I can’t just leave,” Sebastian said quickly. His cheeks turned red after he said it.</p>
<p>	“I can take care of her now, Sebastian. Don’t worry. You did a good thing bringing her back here. Another night walk in the mines?”</p>
<p>	“No, I…” Sebastian paused. “Yeah. A night walk. Just saw her there.” He swallowed. He had forgotten that not everyone was in on the town gossip. There were a few outsiders who couldn’t care less, and Harvey and Maru’s relationship was strictly professional. Of course he wouldn’t know about the emotional ties Sebastian had to this random new farmer. “I’ll go back. Please call my home when she’s awake.”</p>
<p>	“I’ll make sure to.”</p>
<p>---</p>
<p>	“She’s in bed, now.”</p>
<p>	“Yeah? She must be exhausted. Poor thing.” You sat on the steps of your porch, hands cupping your face. “You must be exhausted too. You can’t possibly walk home like this.”</p>
<p>	Sebastian sat down next to you. “Mom can pick me up. I’m sure she’s still awake.”</p>
<p>	“I don’t want to bother her. Just stay here tonight. You can have the bed. I’ll take the couch.” You swallowed nervously and put a hand over his.</p>
<p>	“You don’t have to take the couch.”</p>
<p>	“You did that one time! And it hurt, didn’t it?”</p>
<p>	“Well, sure. Maybe you just need a better couch.” Sebastian laughed a little bit. “I can take it, though. It’s really sweet of you to offer a spot up.”</p>
<p>	There was a silence. You looked away, then back to him, then hugged him tightly. “Thank you so much,” you sobbed out. </p>
<p>	Sebastian’s lip trembled. “Your daughter was the hero here. Plus that old guy who lives in the tent.”</p>
<p>	“Linus?”</p>
<p>	“Yeah, Linus. I just helped out. It really...I…” He took a deep breath. “If I didn’t smoke those goddamn cigarettes, maybe I could’ve helped you myself. But if Linus hadn’t shown up, we would both be…”</p>
<p>	“Let’s not think about that now. We’re here, we’re okay. ...We’re safe.”</p>
<p>	“I just don’t think I can ever be enough for you. Yoba, you’re so wonderful. I’m so glad you’re alive, but I couldn’t save you myself. I can’t do anything myself. I’m just a hindrance most of the time, I’m so nervous that if it had just been me, you would’ve-”</p>
<p>	“Sebastian. I’m safe.”</p>
<p>	“You’re safe.” Sebastian looked over to you, pulling back from the hug. He could see how red your eyes were. “...Yoba, you look high. Have you been hanging out with Emily?” Maybe he had taken the habit of making jokes when he was nervous from Sam.</p>
<p>	“I’m just an ugly crier.” You laughed and shoved his shoulder.</p>
<p>	“Nah, I don’t think you could ever be described as ugly.” Sebastian put a hand under your chin. “Let’s share the bed tonight.”</p>
<p>	“Share it?”</p>
<p>	“Yeah. Say...it’s a victory for making it out of that situation alive.”</p>
<p>	“A victory…” you mumbled. “...Yeah. Okay, a victory.”</p>
<p>	He put his forehead on yours. Yoba, you were beautiful. He loved everything about you, and now that you were safe, you were here, you were okay, he couldn’t help but love you ten times more than he had before, if that was even possible. Two days ago, he didn’t think he could love you more. But now, he did. He almost wanted to say it. It sat on the tip of his tongue, pushing against his lips, begging to be let out. </p>
<p>	“(Y/n)?”</p>
<p>	“Yes?”</p>
<p>	Begging to be let out. “I…”</p>
<p>	“Yeah?”</p>
<p>	“I wanna go on a date with you.” </p>
<p>	A pause.</p>
<p>	Yoba, he was an idiot.</p>
<p>	“Okay.” You smiled.</p>
<p>	“...For real?”</p>
<p>	“Sebastian, we’ve been fucking for like, a month,” you said. “Of course I want to go on a date with you. Take me out on a proper date this time, you goof.” You shoved his shoulder. </p>
<p>	“Yeah? You’re for sure?”</p>
<p>	“Of course I’m for sure! Now come on. You look exhausted.”</p>
<p>	“Alright.”</p>
<p>	The old farmhouse bed still creaked when the two of you laid on it. You were face-to-face, staring at one another, although the lights were completely out. </p>
<p>	“I love being like this,” Sebastian mumbled. His sleepy voice was quiet, dark, low. It made your heart sink to the pit of your stomach.</p>
<p>	“Me too.” You smiled and closed your eyes, leaning into his chest. “...I’m sorry the bed isn’t the best.”</p>
<p>	“I like it,” he mumbled. </p>
<p>	Olive whimpered in her sleep, and the two of you immediately went quiet, hearts pounding in unison. </p>
<p>	“It’s like we’re sneaking around again,” you joked, letting out a whispery little giggle.</p>
<p>	“We’re not teenagers, anymore, sweets. We don’t have to hide anything.”</p>
<p>	“I know, I know. But it’s kinda fun.”</p>
<p>	“It is kinda fun.”</p>
<p>	There was a silence. Sebastian adjusted on the bed, and it let out a moan. He held you closer to him, and you felt the softness of his bare chest, his skin pale like the moonlight shining through the window. It was like a dream.</p>
<p>	“...I’m nervous they’ll think I’m the town slut,” you mumbled.</p>
<p>	“Who?”</p>
<p>	“All of them. You mom, Marnie, Caroline, Jodi. ...Pam.”</p>
<p>	“Does Pam say things to you?”</p>
<p>	“Not necessarily to me. But I hear things.”</p>
<p>	Sebastian sighed. “She’s just taking things out on you. She’s a single mother too, you know that.”</p>
<p>	“She never liked me.”</p>
<p>	“She doesn’t like anybody. Even Sam.”</p>
<p>	“Poor Sam,” you whispered. </p>
<p>	Sebastian paused, looking down at the top of your head. He ran his fingers through your hair. “...(Y/n), do all those rumors seriously bother you?”</p>
<p>	“...Kinda. They would bother me less if they were just about you. But even though they all know that Olive’s your daughter, they still talk about how I must have had sex with half of the young people in town. How I probably have five other kids from men in Zuzu City, but couldn’t bring them with me, and only brought my oldest.”</p>
<p>	“Well, that’s just not true.”</p>
<p>	“Yeah, I know it’s not true. But I’m nervous that your mom will hear all those things and...I don’t know...think they are.”</p>
<p>	“She won’t, and she doesn’t. My mom thinks rumors are a bunch of shit. ...It’s one of the things I love about her.”</p>
<p>	You sighed a bit and leaned into him. “Maybe if we go on a date, all that stuff will stop.”</p>
<p>	“I’ll do everything in my power to make sure it does.” Sebastian held you closer, and the two of you fell asleep in the old farmhouse, the creaky bed bringing you closer than ever.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>thank you for reading!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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